Valley of the Daleks
by Rill with a view
Summary: A Dalek spacecraft crashes at the edge of a small Earth colony on a distant planet - there are seemingly no survivors. Five years later the 7th Doctor and Mel arrive and walk straight into the sucker arms of trouble...


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Author's Notes: This story features the 7th Doctor and Mel -not, I admit, a classic line-up but they're the right combination for this particular story. I've set it somewhere between **Delta and the Bannermen **and **Dragonfire**. 

I, sadly, don't own the characters of the Doctor, Melanie Bush or the Daleks - which means that I'm not a millionaire…

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Valley of the Daleks (Part One)

Commander Dewi Morgan pulled his horse up alongside that of the nearest of his officers and turned his gaze down to the bottom of the valley, squinting hard to try to pick out the slightest suggestion of movement in the thick darkness below. His burning question went unasked but not unanswered.

"Nothing at all to report, sir. There's still no sign of life, nor of anything else."

The officer who spoke shuddered in his saddle, and Dewi knew that it was far more than just the bitter nip of the night air that was causing his discomfort. The entire colony was on edge, that was only to be expected, but the police were suffering more than most. Five days and five nights of observation duty since the spacecraft had crashed landed in the bottom of the valley, with the number of sufficiently well trained men and women being so limited many of Dewi's officers had put in some very long shifts during that time.

Dewi himself had hardly slept a wink since the beginning of the crisis. Apart from doing more than his fair share of observation duty, he wasn't the type to ask his men to do anything he wasn't prepared to do himself, he'd also had the 'evacuation' to organise and maintain. The term 'evacuation' was little more than a euphemism though, at best a code word. The colony was very new and the planet still largely unexplored, the dreadful truth was that there wasn't actually anywhere safer to flee to, so when the emergency was declared the best idea that anyone in authority could think of was for the entire population to take refuge below ground in their own cellars.

Two thousand men, women and children hiding away like frightened rats in a sewer. This was not the freedom that they'd left Earth for. No, it was high time to bring this standoff to its conclusion - for better or for worse. He had everything he needed within the rucksack on his back, everything except a healthy dose of good fortune. He would just have to make his own luck.

"I'm going down there, " He began in a tone which brooked no argument, "And I'm going down alone. Stay here, keep watching and if I've not returned within the hour then you must go back to the compound and inform the governor. Take no further offensive action without her say so. Do you all understand me?"

Dewi glanced along the line of officers until he'd received either a nod or murmur of assent from each and every one of them. Only then did he spur his horse back into action and set off along the well worn path down the side of the valley.

It took him just ten minutes to reach the flat land. As he got closer to the spacecraft he was able to make out more and more of its detail and any lingering doubts as to the origins of the craft were removed. There was a full moon in the midnight sky, reflecting onto both the craft and the shallow canal in which it rested. This particular artificial waterway had been engineered as an irrigation channel to serve the colony's arable land. It was a loop which took water from a much larger river to the west and, further along the valley, the water was pumped up and over the top of the ridge to feed the crops in times of need. Despite its seeming similarity to the old country, this planet was far hotter than the conditions that the colony's farmers were used to operating in. As soon as the menace within the space craft had been neutralized the colonists would have to find an environmentally friendly way in which to dispose of the huge vehicle itself - at the moment it was partially damming the canal and any further slippage would cut off the water supply totally.

About half a kilometre from the craft, Dewi dismounted and tethered his horse to a Yaruk tree. It was better for him to continue on foot. He had his gun, he had his sword and he had his rucksack. The horse neighed noisily as its rider walked away. Dewi's fingers brushed the handle of his gun as the noise echoed through the valley. Just for a split second he had it in his mind to put a single bullet through the animal's forehead and silence it for good. No, if there was anything alive inside the space craft then his cover had already been blown by the neighing and preventing further noise would make little or no difference. Besides, should he need to make a hasty getaway then the horse would be his only faint hope.

Upon arriving at the spacecraft, Dewi stood still for a moment to think through his plans. The craft was tilted towards him very slightly due to being partly caught on the opposite bank so that the closed door, presumably a ramp like structure when lowered, was angled slightly downwards with its base just below the surface of the water. The impact of the crash landing had buckled the door outwards so that it bowed a little, presenting a tempting a gap which a man should just about be able to squeeze through.

Dewi reached into his rucksack and produced a small torch, which he flicked on and directed the beam of light at the buckled door. Yes, there was certainly enough room for him to squeeze through there. The water had also found the same way in and that fact gave Dewi a glimmer of hope. Surely they'd not stay inside a waterlogged craft if they were still alive? Even if they could no longer operate the door manually then they'd have blasted their way out by now. The small matter of the canal would be no obstacle, Dewi knew full well that they could navigate water.

He waded across and pushed his way through the gap. It was a tighter fit than he had anticipated but he made it. The inside of the craft was in total darkness. No artificial lighting, no sparkle from any active controls. Dewi could see no further than the beam of his own torch. Still cautiously, but with growing confidence, he crept slowly forwards along the short access corridor and came upon the main control room. This was it.

He raised his beam up from the ground and swept it across the room. His initial sweep revealed three of the creatures, all seemingly dead. No eyestalks swung round to glower hatefully at him and none of the guns moved to cover him. The sucker arms were all plugged into various control panels, each Dalek still manning its station in death as it had in life.

Dewi moved forward jubilantly and yelped in pain as his left shin bashed against something hard. His torch beam revealed the mystery object to be another Dalek, this one was laid out on its side - which was why he'd missed it in his original sweep. No matter, it was equally as inactive as the other three. Dewi guessed that this fourth Dalek, the only one not plugged into any of the controls, was most likely to be the commander of the expedition and that it had been thrown down from its command dais by the impact of the crash.

Dewi kicked at each Dalek in turn, until he was satisfied that there was no life left in any of them. Next he set about the task of opening one of the casings up, and soon wished that he hadn't. The putrid stench hit his nostrils straight away and he slammed the lid back down as fought back his body's natural reaction to vomit. Nothing was going to stop him from getting his revenge now though. He reopened the Dalek, reached inside, and unceremoniously hauled out the decaying mutant creature and threw it across the room.

"That was for my father," he yelled.

He placed his torch on the dais, keeping the beam shining upon the corpse, and once again rummaged around in his rucksack until he found what he was searching for. He pulled out a large folded piece of cloth and unwrapped it to reveal the national flag of Wales in all of its red, white and green glory. He unsheathed his sword and attached the flag to its handle, he paused only to kiss the dragon emblem before advancing towards the body of the mutant.

"And this, " He whispered. "This is for my whole country, you murdering bastards!"

Choked up by memories and emotion, and unable to speak further, Commander Dewi Morgan violently skewered the tip of his sword down through what he judged to be the mutant's cranium. He stepped back to regard his work. The flag hung limply, and somewhat incongruously, above the pathetic little body. Dewi sank to his knees and sobbed for his ancestors.

He had no idea that he wasn't the only living being inside the craft and that everything that he had done since entering had been closely observed. A hitherto unseen dark shape chose this moment to detach itself from the shadows behind Dewi and advance towards him…

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Five years later…

"Breathe that air, Mel. Doesn't it just make you glad to be alive? So pure… Unlike anywhere on Earth - now, there's your first clue!"

The Doctor smiled his most annoyingly self-satisfied smile and rested against a convenient boulder while he waited for Mel to hazard a guess.

"Be fair, " She chided him gently. "I enjoy a good guessing game as much as the next person - but you have the advantage of several lifetimes of interplanetary exploration. I've only even heard of about twenty different planets, and I don't think that this is one of them."

The two friends had been walking for about half an hour, by earth time. Mel always wore a wristwatch set to GMT no matter where in the universe she might be, it gave her some sense of continuity and, well,… time. She surveyed the immediate landscape. They were following the path of an artificial waterway along the bottom of a valley. Steep grass banks rose up on either side of them and on the top of the right hand bank she could just make out the familiar sight of sheep grazing.

"Well, if I didn't know better then I'd say that this is Earth. The Welsh valleys perhaps?

The Doctor remained totally enigmatic.

"But _do_ you know better?"

He used his umbrella to push himself up off the boulder and raised it above his head to point at the sheep.

"Earth animals, looks like Earth doesn't it? Shall we see what's in the next valley before you make up your mind?"

Mel sighed in resignation and followed on as the Doctor began to amble up the slope. At least they were both getting a healthy dose of physical exercise.

The nearest sheep scattered nervously as the Doctor and Mel came into their line of vision.

"There!"

The Doctor stepped back rather theatrically to make his point, almost losing his footing.

Mel gasped in astonishment at the vision laid out beneath them. Much of the flat of this new valley was taken up by an enormous walled compound about two miles in length by half a mile across. Within the walls were a sprawling myriad variety of buildings representing the architecture of several centuries. Mel recognised building which appeared to be Tudor, Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, late 20th century plus many more, presumably later periods, which were totally unfamiliar to her.

"Living heritage, " beamed the Doctor. "Welcome to New Wales City, at this point, one of the newest and most vibrant Earth colonies in the entire galaxy. Most of the people here originated in Wales, they left earth after the great… Yes, well that's all history now."

"At this point? So when is now?"

"Well, the colony was founded in 2207, none of those buildings down there can be much more than a decade old, so take your pick. Let's call it 2220? Unless we learn otherwise of course - though I generally find it doesn't pay to go around the universe asking people what the year is, my credibility gets reduced somewhat."

"I can understand that," laughed Mel. "So do you think they might welcome visitors?"

The Doctor nodded enthusiastically.

His optimism seemed to be well founded. The main gates to the compound were unguarded and the two travellers were able to wander in freely and mingle with the people of New Wales City. They bought fruit at a market stall, as usual the Doctor was able to produce the correct currency, and they visited a small cottage museum devoted to life in 20th century Wales. The Doctor mischievously introduced Mel as a scholar of the period and she, in turn, rose to the occasion and astounded the elderly curator with the extent of her knowledge of ordinary life three centuries ago.

It was upon leaving the museum that their problems started. Waiting outside for them was the all too familiar shape of a Dalek. The Doctor's shock at seeing any Dalek in New Wales City was as nothing in comparison to his sheer astonishment at the colour scheme of this particular specimen. The Doctor had seen Daleks of all colours throughout his travels but never, he was sure, had he before encountered one looking quite as bizarre as this one did. The top half of the Dalek, from the dome down to just below the gun and sucker arms were a brilliant white and everything below that was green. Emblazoned between the two arms was the logo of the red dragon of Wales. A Dalek decorated in the colours of the Welsh flag.

The appearance may have been unusual but the harsh, grating voice was all too familiar.

"You are both un-i-dent-i-fied be-ings. You will come with me. Move! Move!"

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TO BE CONTINUED


End file.
